Why did Marvel stop selling comics at Gas Stations, drug stores, Etc.?

[firstmode]

Remember back in the day, during the early to mid 90's you could buy comics everywhere. I mean, you could go to a gas station, drug store, super market, book store, etc and there would always be a comic stand.

What happened?

[DeadXMan]

you can still get comics at book stores and super market

ithas to do with the distributor and the business

[firstmode]

It really is a big difference though...

[remoteman]

When I was five years old (1995) I bought my first comic book, an American import from a UK newsagent. Although I mainly read UK reprints I remember picking up the odd American comic for at least a couple of years then they abruptly stopped picking them up, I believe it was the same in most similar shops. Many UK newsagents do still sell the UK reprints though.

[Fat Cobra]

It really is a big difference though...

I agree. Why do you think they have the numbers in the comics, that you call to find a comic store? Because its not some casual thing to just find a comics shop, and thats probably why more people don't buy comics. I remember when I was younger, I actually had to use one of those numbers.

[Darrell D.]

You have to remember that newsstand editions are returnable; that is to say, if the books don't sell, they can be returned and credited.
I worked for a newsstand distributor in the 90s and the glut of comics (image, Marvel, DC) was amazing, but for every 25 copies of Youngblood/Brigade/Wildcats, I would return around 15.
I'm guessing that the main reason you don't see them in more places is that the distributors may consider them unprofitable, especially after the 90's implosion.

[Expletive Deleted]

A per-issue profit that doesn't really justify the shelf space to retailers, increasingly cutthroat competition for that shelf space, skittishness over returnable product on the part of the publisher . . . Take your pick, really.

In any case, it'll be interesting to see how BOOM!'s deal with Kable Distribution works out.

[CaptainCanada]

In general, retailers don't want 'em, for a variety of reasons (cost being one of them).

[lobsterj]

Yeah, this thread would be more accurately phrased as "Why did gas stations, drug stores, etc. stop selling comics?"

[blehbeh]

The modern day comparison is the presence of huge graphic novel/tpb sections at places like Borders and Barnes and Noble.

That's the new way to reach the casual reader, and trade paperbacks are form the modern casual readers wants.

[whiteshark]

I dont know what happened.

But is still easy to find comics to buy.
In my case the comics titles republished and translated in my country are easy to find.(Most of the Book Shoops,and newsagent) have these comics.

Its just more dificult to find the original American titles.As far as i know there is only one comic shop in a reasonable distance from where i live.
But still i just ring the comic shoop and ask them to hold the comics i want until i have a chance to go there.

So i guess if anybody really want to buy a comic book,just because there is less spaces to buy them doesnt mean it is really relevant.

[psm]

A per-issue profit that doesn't really justify the shelf space to retailers, increasingly cutthroat competition for that shelf space, skittishness over returnable product on the part of the publisher . . . Take your pick, really.

I wonder if the new price increase will change that. With comics going to 4.99 they start becoming more comparable with existing magazines.

[Alex Scott]

Yeah, but for 22 pages, it's hardly going to be worth it. Compared to something like Shonen Jump or even MAD, it's just pathetic.

[striderhirryu2]

It's sad how Archie Comics are still in supermarkets and drug stores and nothing else.

[Gaastra]

When i was a kid i used to get my comics at raceway. They had the spinning rack where you could spin it to look at the books. I read many marvel titles for the first time there. They were only 75 cents to. Then the sad day when they stopped selling them. Marvel and dc lost at lot of new kid readers that way i bet.

[Hulk_Is]

Yeah, those were some rad times -- bein' a kid and spinnin' the rack. That was a whole experience in itself. :smile:

[TheBoTT]

I'm sure a good chunk of us got into reading by convincing our parents to by us an issue at the grocery store or gas station. I know i did. Sad this is no longer relevant.

[GHalecki]

It startes when one of the companies (I think it was Marvel) started producing some books for the direct market only, meaning actual comic stores, not regular magazine stands. These were books (IIRC) that were expected to sell well enough to existing comic fans, but were not expected to be the kind of product to bring in new readers. I THINK that the very first Directr Market book was Moon Knight #1 back in the early 80s, but I may be wrong about that.

These comics were sold to the comic shops on a non returnable basis. That means for every 100 copies of an issue that was sold by the publisher, 100 copies STAYED sold. When the books were sold to the newsstand distributors, they were returnable, so if they sold 100 copies of a book, it was not uncommon to have to take back 30, 50, or occasionally even more. That was a lot of printing and logistical expenses in regard to producing a ton more product that ended up being sold ion the end.

Selling to the direct market was far more profitable than the the newsstand business, even though they actually sold more copies of the books at the newsstand.

They started to incentivise the direct market even more, by producing seperate direct market runs of all of their books, not just the ones sold ONLY to the DM. That is why most of the books published in the 80s can be found with some issues having a bar code on the cover, and others having a logo (usually either the DC logo or the Spiderman head).

To try to get as many people buying the books at the comic shops over the news stands as possible, they would ship the new issues to the specialty stores several weeks before they would ship them to the newsstands.

The publishers kept moving more and more to the specialty shops over the news stands, largely by starting new titles or moving more and more existing ones to the direct format only. They were looking for more profit per unit, and sacreficed their overall volume in order to do it.

Of course we see how that worked out. The publishers counted on there ALWAYS being plenty of comic stores to sell their product. And now there isn't. They decided not to keep their product in the locations that would always be around, because the terms weren't as favorable for them.

Now, the printing processes are so much more expensive, that they COULDN'T go back to the newsstand system if they wanted to. The returned issues wouldn't just cut into profeits, they would probably ruin the companies within a year. In addition to that, after all of this time not being as accessable to the public, there is much less of a demand for the product. There is so little demand, that the newsstands aren't interested in the products any more.

I bet Marvel and DC would sell large portions of their corperate souls in order to take back that mistake.

[pc999]

I dont know what happened.

But is still easy to find comics to buy.
In my case the comics titles republished and translated in my country are easy to find.(Most of the Book Shoops,and newsagent) have these comics.

Its just more dificult to find the original American titles.As far as i know there is only one comic shop in a reasonable distance from where i live.
But still i just ring the comic shoop and ask them to hold the comics i want until i have a chance to go there.

So i guess if anybody really want to buy a comic book,just because there is less spaces to buy them doesnt mean it is really relevant.

Please, tell me (PM or such if needed) where is easy to find comics in PT, if possible in Lx (I only know on or two places).

Thanks in advance.

[MTL76]

Yeah, those were some rad times -- bein' a kid and spinnin' the rack. That was a whole experience in itself. :smile:

That's the truth. I miss that rack...:frown:

[CaptainCanada]

The interesting thing about DC's current answer to the latest cost increases, adding a backup story, is that they did that before, in the early 70s. Back then, distributors starting to drop comics because they weren't worth carrying because they sold too little. Through the 1970s, sales in newstands continued to shrink.

The development of the so-called direct market was a response to the decline of interest in newsvendors.

[CMBMOOL]

Dang does that topic bring back some of my memories as a kid. Even though I didn't get into comics until I was a bit older. :tongue:

[Iron Maiden]

There's just not enough space to carry all the stuff that comes out any more. Just between Marvel and DC, there's about 30 titles due to ship Wednesday. In the US, the comics would be competing for space with magazines like OK, Star, Enquirer, Motor Trend, Oprah's "O", Good Housekeeping, various car magazines, etc. and more. The magazine section at the local Walgreen's or supermarket is stuffed already with so much stuff you can barely see the covers. I can recall the times when Marvel only had maybe a dozen titles or so a month so the spinner rack scenario was viable. But even back then, for some reason we seldom got the annuals at the local Rexall drugs.

[Alexrules]

I could still find Amazing, Supergirl, and the Dark Avengers at my local store. It's still not as much as they're used to be.

[mattmanbass]

wow i totally remember those days of spinning the rack, that is was the best way in my opinion, it is a shame those days are past, my local supermarket only has 2 comics available and i had never heard of em

[mikekerr3]

Yeah, this thread would be more accurately phrased as "Why did gas stations, drug stores, etc. stop selling comics?"

Because the Comics companies made comics much riskery to sell than regualr magazines With regular books and magizes the retailer does have to eat the loss of unsold books.

[stingerman]

My local supermarket sells them in a spinner rack.

Yeah, first comic I ever bought was at a convenient store.

[akumasan]

My local supermarket sells them in a spinner rack.

Yeah, first comic I ever bought was at a convenient store.

Yep my first book was at the local 7-11 and i still remember playing altered beast there as well.

[stingerman]

Yep my first book was at the local 7-11 and i still remember playing altered beast there as well.

Altered Beast rocked! I remember "completing" it as it wasn't too difficult.

From there we'd go to the Boys Club...ahhh the good old days. :smile:

[DrDoom616]

When I was a kid you could buy comics everywhere, bus stations, newsagents, book stores, supermarkets, etc, it's how i first started collecting comics, at age 5 my mom used to buy me a comic at the bus station every weekend we went shopping, usually DC though like Batman, Superman, Green Lantern and JLA.

These days you are hard pressed to even find a comic store, which is the only retail place that actually sells comics, especially if you live in a village or such as comic shops are only found in large towns or cities.

Surely, Marvel would sell a lot more books if they were made readily available to the masses.

I think the only reason it could be though, is that these retailers just were not making any money from comics, as the mark up on comics is not much at all really unless you buy them in bulk like comic shops, most newsagents back then only had 1 or 2 of each book.

[maverick11]

There was a time, (late 80's) where my local bookstore in New Zealand had most, if not all of the Marvel titles I was getting at the time: G.I.Joe, Special Missions, Transformers, etc...
I agree, it is very difficult to find floppies in any store other than my LCS nowadays, (they do stock lot's of UK reprints over here in London however) although most bookstores are building up decent Graphic Novel sections now...
Students I taught back home in New Zealand were all truly interested in comics from movies but just couldn't find them anywhere. I'd direct them to the LCS - the owner would get the biggest fright when all these little kids would come in on Free Comic Book Day!

[firstmode]

When i was a kid i used to get my comics at raceway. They had the spinning rack where you could spin it to look at the books. I read many marvel titles for the first time there. They were only 75 cents to. Then the sad day when they stopped selling them. Marvel and dc lost at lot of new kid readers that way i bet.

I agree. I think if those spinning racks were everywhere today that a lot of new fans would be created.

[beanburito60]

It seems to me that the same things that are happening with comics, has happened to sports cards as well.

Used to you could find card packs and comics at grocery stores, gas stations, etc, but, at least with cards, they got more specialized and expensive and ebay became the primary source to buy cards.

I just think with the influx of videogames, computers, ipods, etc, kids unfortunately don't have the same interests as they did even 10-15 yrs ago. I think marvel needs to find a way to expose kids to comics or they will have trouble years down the road.
If they could market to kids in the 6-12 range and get them hooked prior to maybe other interest like music, movies, ets. i think they would have a lot of luck establishing a new reader base.
Heck, I never see comics anywhere and if I hadn't collected them from the 90's i wouldnt even know where to get one. So i wonder what/if marvels plan for new readers is.:frown:

[Justin K.]

The grocery store near my place used to sell comics
they stoppped mid 2007, which sucked, having the LCS be on the other side of town at the time

[Alex Scott]

But then, comics are reaching kids in bookstores. They just don't tend to be Marvel.

[Weapon Z]

I got into comics from my mom buying them for me from the grocery store when I went with her as a kid. In fact, the first ever comic I ever got was from an airport gift shop. Good times.

[Parch]

It seems to me that the same things that are happening with comics, has happened to sports cards as well. One of the biggest con jobs of the 90's was the industry convincing the public that new comics and sportscards were an investment. They fooled consumers into believing that new cards and comics would someday be as valuable as the very old and very rare collectables.

Comics and cards went from the drug stores to speciality shops. Buying a new comic and sealing it up in hard plastic is so illogical, but that's what happened to the hobby. It made me sad when I saw a kid buy a comic or card because he thought it was an investment. Thankfully that type of logic is passing and people are buying comics because they actually want to read them instead of treating them like stock options.

[Craig T. Nelson]

I've got a box full of early-mid 90s comics my parents bought for me when I was a kid. They used to get them everywhere, hell I remember the guy at the barbershop giving me a Spider-man comic.

Now, shit, I have to drive through the center of Lowell to get to Larry's comics. It's less than 10 miles away but the traffic is always a pain.

[GHalecki]

But then, comics are reaching kids in bookstores. They just don't tend to be Marvel.

The only kids I ever see in the book stores are the toddlers yelling their heads off while their moms are looking for the latest Danielle Steele or whatever.

I have never seen anyone under twenty in that graphic novel aisle, and I am there at least once a week, sometimes as much as three times.

[Trey]

That's the truth. I miss that rack...:frown:

That rack is still spinning at your local Borders and Barnes and Nobles.

Supermarkets also carry individual comics and the related magazines.

[Gitaroo_Dude]

The only kids I ever see in the book stores are the toddlers yelling their heads off while their moms are looking for the latest Danielle Steele or whatever.

I have never seen anyone under twenty in that graphic novel aisle, and I am there at least once a week, sometimes as much as three times.

Anecdotal.

Every time I step into a local bookstore, the Manga aisle is filled with kids. It's just that the kids have left super heroes for Manga.

[Alex Scott]

Exactly. Somebody's buying Fruits Basket and Naruto, and it ain't the grown-up comic collectors. Manga has succeeded where Marvel and DC failed: winning the support of kids, teens, and especially, especially girls. And this has been the case for... what, at least seven years now?